New York targets NRA

The US state of New York has sued the powerful gun lobby group NRA for alleged financial misconduct and has demanded that the organization be dissolved. Attorney General Letitia James said Thursday that NRA chief Wayne LaPierre and three other executives had embezzled the organization’s funds on a large scale.

Over three years, the National Rifle Association lost more than $ 64 million. The money was not used for its actual purpose in the organization, said James. Rather, LaPierre and the three other current and former top NRA representatives would have spent the money on trips to the Bahamas, private jets and expensive food, among other things.

“The influence of the NRA is so powerful that the organization has been beyond control for decades, while executives have diverted millions into their own pockets,” said the attorney general. The NRA is “fraught with fraud and abuse” and must therefore be smashed. “We are asking for the NRA to be dissolved because no organization is above the law.”

The National Rifle Association is one of the most influential lobbying organizations in the United States. For decades it has been resisting a tightening of US gun law, some of which is highly controversial.

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